The efficiency of energy use in the USSR —an international perspective

Abstract

We present an extensive analysis of the structure and intensity of energy use in the USSR since 1960. After a brief review of the energy-supply situation in the USSR, we describe a detailed analysis of measures of sectoral and sub-sectoral activity in the industrial, transportation, residential, and services sectors. The Soviet Union produces more steel and cement, and ships far more freight per capita than most Western countries. But Soviet citizens have less space in their homes and in the service sector, fewer appliances, far fewer cars, and travel only one third as much as their Western counterparts. A comparison of the energy intensities of key activities in the USSR and those of Western countries shows that in most cases the Soviet Union uses more energy than Western countries to produce a given production or output. We reject aggregate measures (such as the ratio of energy use to national income) as tools for comparisons between the past evaluations of Western and Soviet energy use or for predicting energy use in the future because both the structure of the Soviet economy and the intensities of energy uses in the USSR differ so greatly from Western experience. We conclude that there is a large potential for energy savings in the Soviet economy.